Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#1

Post by nanna » Sat, May 01, 2021, 10:15 AM UTC

Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski
mbork.pl

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#2

Post by nanna » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's website helpful, but also completely overwhelming in all its detail. I'm after a guide. So I'm looking forward to this book by Marcin Borkowski.

Maybe others have suggestions of other ways to pick up Elisp?

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#3

Post by scroot » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

nanna wrote: post #2

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's…

Dave Wilson is doing "The Lord's Work" when it comes to Emacs outreach, over on his System Crafters [1] YouTube channel. One of the series he is running there is an ongoing guide to Emacs Lisp.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiiOTio8Yu69c3XnR7nQBQ

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#4

Post by nanna » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

scroot wrote: post #3

nanna wrote: post #2

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's…

Dave Wilson is doing "The Lord's Work" when it comes to Emacs outreach, over on his System Crafters [1] YouTube channel. One of the series he is running there is an ongoing guide to Emacs Lisp. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiiOTio8Yu69c3XnR7nQBQ

Thanks, yes that's true Dave Wilson's doing great work.

One other resource I actually found very helpful, pitched just right, is Musa Al-hassy's Elisp Cheatsheet. It's short but it gets straight to the detail. If he ever wrote a book I'd prepreorder it.

https://github.com/alhassy/ElispCheatSheet/blob/master/Cheat...

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#5

Post by podiki » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

nanna wrote: post #4

scroot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Wilson is doing "The Lord's Work" when it comes to Emacs outreach, over on his System Crafters [1] YouTube channel. One of the series he is running there is an ongoing guide to Emacs Lisp. [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiiOTio8Yu69c3XnR7nQBQ

Thanks, yes that's true Dave Wilson's doing great work. One other resource I actually found very helpful, pitched just right, is Musa Al-hassy's Elisp Cheatsheet. It's short but it gets straight to the detail. If he ever wrote a book I'd prepreorder it. https://github.com/alhassy/ElispCheatSheet/blob/master/Cheat...

Thanks for both of these! I tend to just look up elisp stuff when it isn't clear from my Common Lisp knowledge, cheat sheets are perfect for this.

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#6

Post by dilipdasilva » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

Looking forward to buying the completed book.

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#7

Post by momentoftop » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

nanna wrote: post #2

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's…

Do you know any other lisps? I got by with the Elisp manual, but I already knew Common Lisp. Maybe a strategy is to find a great book teaching, say, scheme, and learn elisp after?

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#8

Post by nanna » Sat, May 01, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

momentoftop wrote: post #7

nanna wrote: post #2

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's…

Do you know any other lisps? I got by with the Elisp manual, but I already knew Common Lisp. Maybe a strategy is to find a great book teaching, say, scheme, and learn elisp after?

I'm pretty excited by Clojure so thinking of delving more into that, and then hoping it maps back onto Elisp, despite it lacking stuff like tail recursion. Would that make sense, or should I stick closer to the tree?

Maybe CL is the best route to Elisp... If so, any recommendations on how one might learn CL in 2021?

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#9

Post by momentoftop » Sat, May 01, 2021, 6:30 PM UTC

nanna wrote: post #8

momentoftop wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know any other lisps? I got by with the Elisp manual, but I already knew Common Lisp. Maybe a strategy is to find a great book teaching, say, scheme, and learn elisp after?

I'm pretty excited by Clojure so thinking of delving more into that, and then hoping it maps back onto Elisp, despite it lacking stuff like tail recursion. Would that make sense, or should I stick closer to the tree? Maybe CL is the best route to Elisp... If so, any recommendations on how one might learn CL in 2021?

I actually only know CL and Elisp. I played a bit with Clojure, and its Emacs story looks pretty solid, but I was thinking it might be difficult to translate idiomatic clojure code to Elisp when Clojure has more emphasis on purity.

I'd guess that CL is closest to Elisp, especially when you use the popular "cl-mode", and you have the same mental model of hacking on a live lisp system. I learned CL from Paul Graham's "ANSI Common Lisp" back in the day, but I'd too be interested in what's recommended in 2021.

Re: Emacs Lisp book revived: Marcin Borkowski

#10

Post by taeric » Sat, May 01, 2021, 7:12 PM UTC

momentoftop wrote: post #7

nanna wrote: post #2

I've found the lack of resources to learning Elisp a challenge. I haven't finished it, but Robert J. Chassell's 'An introduction to programming in Emacs Lisp' seems to run through basic concepts but doesn't really get to the meat of actually putting everything together. (Could be wrong) And the Elisp manual reads like the output of an Elsip macro - so terse, so few examples, so much over my head. I've found Xah Lee's…

Do you know any other lisps? I got by with the Elisp manual, but I already knew Common Lisp. Maybe a strategy is to find a great book teaching, say, scheme, and learn elisp after?

I'm curious if you have a good sheet on what differences are worth focusing on?

My main blocker is that it was originally tough to realize that the buffer is an essential part of elisp. Reflexively, I would look for ways to manipulate strings and be disappointed at how hard that was to find. As soon as I started seeing elisp as a way to program buffers, things got a lot easier.